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Located in Rochester, New York, Mike Scibetta and The Scibetta Law Office represent individuals from Monroe, Wayne, Ontario and surrounding counties.

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Offering a False Instrument for Filing

While your "average" white collar crime
case may not include the offenses of Offering a False Instrument for
Filing in the First Degree (New York Penal Law 175.35) and Offering a
False Instrument for Filing in the Second Degree (New York Penal Law
175.30), The Scibetta Law Office still believes it is important for those accused of these crimes to have a grasp on these sections of the New York Penal Law.

New
York Criminal lawyers versed in Offering a False Instrument for Filing,
whether it is New York PL 175.30 or New York PL 175.35, understand that
inexperienced attorneys and those accused of this crime may confuse
these offenses with Falsifying Business Records. While both crimes are
similar and punishable as either "A" misdemeanors or "E" felonies, there
are significant differences between the two. One of the most notable of
these differences is that Offering a False Instrument for Filing
involves written instruments filed with a public office. For example,
while your fraud related conduct of filing a false timesheet with your
accounting firm or law firm may be Falsifying Business Records, if you
do the same and your employer is the City of New York or a public
agency, then the crime would likely be Offering a False Instrument for
Filing. It should go without saying that more evidence would be
necessary to sustain a conviction than what has been provided in this
short hypothetical. However, it should be clear that regardless of the
other elements, if the entity involved is not public, then Offering a
False Instrument for Filing would not be an appropriate charge.

Because
Offering a False Instrument for Filing usually involves other
allegations of criminal conduct, there may be greater or more
significant crimes that your criminal attorney need to address in an
investigation, arrest or indictment. Some of these crimes include:

By
no means a complete list, each of the crimes are equal to or
significantly greater in terms of potential punishment and incarceration
than Offering a False Instrument for Filing.

To shed further
light on the crime of Offering a False Instrument for Filing, William
Donnino, the commentator in the annotated code, has stated:

"The
basic crime of 'offering a false instrument for filing' is directed at
the person who, knowing that a 'written instrument' [defined in
175.00(3)] has false recitals, 'offers or presents' the instrument to a
'public office' or 'public servant' [defined in 10.00(15)] with the
'knowledge or belief' that it will become part of the records of that
public office or servant [175.30]."

"Notably, the crime is limited
to written instruments which contain false recitals as opposed to
forged instruments; the instrument need only be offered or presented,
not accepted or received, by the public office or servant; and the
defendant need only have a subjective belief, not actual knowledge, that
the instrument will become part of the records of the public office or
servant."

Donnino further states that:

"The crime of
offering a false instrument for filing is divided into two degrees. The
basic crime is offering a false instrument in the second degree [175.30]
and that crime is predicated on 'knowing' that the written instrument
offered for filing contains a false statement or false information. If
that basic crime is also committed 'with an intent to defraud' the State
or any political subdivision, public authority or public benefit
corporation of the State, then the defendant is guilty of offering a
false instrument for filing in the first degree [175.35]. (The
first-degree statute was amended in 1998 to overrule People v. Miller,
1987, 70 N.Y.2d 903, 524 N.Y.S.2d 386, 519 N.E.2d 297 by making the
crime applicable to filings with a public authority or public benefit
corporation. L. 1998, c. 99.)"

"By that two-degree structure, the
drafters sought to distinguish the level of culpability between, for
example, the person who, out of vanity, knowingly falsifies his or her
age in an application for a license in which the age of the applicant is
not significant, and one who corruptly defrauds the State out of huge
sums through false documents submitted in connection with a building
contract. See Staff Notes of the Commission on Revision of the Penal
Law. Proposed New York Penal Law. McKinney's Spec. Pamph. (1964), p.
366."

Whether you or someone you know is the target of an
investigation involving Offering a False Instrument for Filing or a
greater fraud scheme, contact The Scibetta Law Office. It is more than merely your liberty that may be at stake.